By Pk Bartley
U of L’s 85-71 win over Ball State was payback for Ball State’s blow out win against Louisville last year in the first round of the WNIT.
“I know I played the worst game of my life against them,” junior guard Sara Nord said about last year’s game. “Going into the game I just had this feeling that we were going to win, because we have Lori (Nero) and our confidence and we got inside-out game.”
Nord made up for last year’s bad game with 19 points, five assists, five rebounds, and four steals. However, in the first five minutes of the first half, U of L did not look very sharp. Ball State got out to a 12-6 lead.
Then the Lady Cards went on a 23-5 run to put themselves up 29-17. The Louisville turn around was lead by senior guard Sabrina Minter who came off the bench with 11 points in the first half.
U of L turned up the defensive pressure forcing Ball State into 16 turnovers in the first half, which turned into Louisville 17 points.
“Stretches in the first half we played outstanding defensively and offensively.” Said U of L head coach Martin Clapp. “It wasn’t always the starters. It was a little mixture of the bench and players that did start.”
Clapp also believes that the first half was the best half basketball offensively and defensively combined that his team has played all year. It showed on the scoreboard, as U of L was up 44-29 at the break.
Ball State came out on a roll to start the second half, coming all the way back to tie the game at 57.
With 9:44 to go in the game, U of L looked as if they were in trouble. Then senior center Lori Nero took the game over, scoring ten straight points for the Cards to put U of L up 67-59 with 6:28 left.
At that point U of L went on a 9-0 run, which put the game away at 76-62 with just over two minutes left. After that the Lady Cards hit several free throws to wrap the game up.
“You have a true go to player,” Clapp says about Nero. “When it was crunch time, our kids know who we have to go to.”
Nero had 18 points for the game as well as six rebounds, one block and one steal.
Up next for U of L, is Troy State tomorrow night at home at 7pm.
